


Random Encounters

by Symantra



Category: BanG Dream! (Anime), BanG Dream! Girl's Band Party! (Video Game)
Genre: Flowers, Friendship, Gen, dads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-06-25
Packaged: 2020-05-19 16:42:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19360771
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Symantra/pseuds/Symantra
Summary: Hagumi goes for a run and winds up bumping into who other than Ran, a girl she kinda sorta recognizes but has never tried to talk to. Until now, at least.





	Random Encounters

**Author's Note:**

> Ran and Hagumi is an idea I thought of mostly as a joke, but since Bandori Rarepair Week is a thing I decided to dig it out. Cheers!

Hagumi slowed down before she passed the gate to someone’s house. She stopped right under the name plate and doubled over as she caught her breath, then she remembered what her softball coach had taught her and straightened up. It was okay to lean against a wall if she needed to recover, her coach had said, but at the very least she should keep her back straight and her chin up.

Usually she prided herself on being a good runner. She had good endurance, and sometimes she even felt as if she had infinite stamina, and she could reach speeds that a lot of other, bigger people weren’t able to reach. But today, she had been running for over an hour, almost two, so it wasn’t that she was out of shape.

This was the first time she had been out that long without stopping to rest or drink water. She shuffled over to the wall and put her back up to it, let her head tilt back and rest on the hard surface. Although she had stopped for a while now, her heart raced as if she were still on the move. For every cool gulp of air she took, she wanted another one. Anything to extinguish the fire inside her lungs, which she wished could have been bigger right now.

All of a sudden she knew it had been the right choice to stand by the wall. Darkness clamored at the edge of her vision, and static set in over her sight and hearing. She closed her eyes and waited for it to go away.

She knew better than to push herself to this point—athletes were dedicated not self-destructive—but she also knew she had a reckless streak. When she had heard the front door creak open and slam shut, and she had walked over to the living room where her dad had been sitting a few minutes ago, it had been like her rationale had been shut down.

Even though it was a pattern she knew well, and she figured it wouldn’t be anything to worry about, the need to go for a run had possessed her then. After blundering through an excuse to her mom about where she was going (the real answer was nowhere, but she said her friend’s house), her running shoes were on and she was outside.

Somewhere nearby, she heard metal creaking, a reminder that she was in the middle of the streets. Specifically, a random street, because she had no idea where in the world she was after running for more than an hour.

“ You...” A low, hesitating voice started then stopped. “Kitazawa-san?”

Hagumi’s eyes popped open, and she straightened up. What were the chances she would come across someone she knew out here? Or someone who knew her, not to say that idea was more appealing.

“ Ran-chan?” she said, hoping she had the girl’s name right. ‘Ran’ walked over to her. In a t-shirt and striped shorts, she looked much more casual than when Hagumi saw her with the other Afterglow girls.

“ Why are you in front of my house?”

Hagumi looked at the nameplate. It read, in dark and beautiful writing, Mitake.

Ran gave her a strange look when she said she had been running. “You... don’t you live pretty far from here? You go to Hanasakigawa along with Kasumi, right?”

“ M-hm...” Hagumi nodded, still breathing heavily. Then she realized where she was and gasped. “Wait, you go to Haneoka! That means I’m in Kita!”

Ran nodded and crossed her arms. “I can’t believe you ran all the way here,” she said, a little taken aback. Hagumi felt the same way, though she just laughed and scratched the back of her neck. She hadn’t been paying attention to the time or where she had been going at all, so she was surprised too. “That’s kind of impressive, I gotta admit.”

Ran turned away, and Hagumi watched as she walked over to the wall on the other side of the gate. “I was just putting up this flyer,” she told Hagumi as she came back. “It’s for some new type of display my dad’s doing. You probably aren’t too interested in that.”

Hagumi shook her head and went to take a look. “I think flowers are really pretty. Your dad does flower arrangement, right?”

“ Yup. It’s my family’s thing, I guess.” Ran shrugged after she said it. Hagumi looked at her.

“ I think that’s super cool though! My parents run a meat shop in Shinjuku, and even though I think our displays look great, it’s not pretty in the same way flowers are.”

On the flyer was a standing bouquet of flowers. More specifically, the bouquet was set in a metal frame with three legs that kept it upright. Rich, soft-looking blossoms spilled out of it; each flower had deep purple petals, but closer to the center the petals were a bright electric blue. In between them were a bunch of small flowers, many white to break up the otherwise monochrome bouquet. A cluster of red poppies stood out among the darker colors, somehow more vibrant than the other flowers but not seeming like the center of the piece. Underneath the image was an identical one, only strands of ivy were wrapped around the metal frame.

“ Your dad does this?” Hagumi asked out of surprise. Ran nodded again. “It looks amazing! I’m surprised nobody talks about him.”

“ It’s not the kind of thing you think about until you need flowers,” Ran said with a half-smile that Hagumi figured meant, ‘that’s just how it is.’ “But yeah, thanks. I’ll tell him... actually,” Ran paused and seemed to consider what she was about to say. “You could just come in and tell him yourself. I mean, you ran over seven kilometers. I should at least offer you water or something.”

“ Really? Yay!” She couldn’t resist raising her voice to give a small cheer. “Thanks a lot!”

Though she had been invited in, Hagumi stayed for a few more seconds to look at the flyer. Behind her, Ran stood halfway inside the gate, her fingers fiddling with the iron bars.

“ They’re blue orchids,” she said after a moment, surprising Hagumi. “The red ones are poppies.”

Once Hagumi was done looking, she followed Ran, and the gate closed behind them. Inside Ran’s house, at a low table with some books and magazine issues, sat a broad-shouldered man in a dark traditional robe. He had hard-looking eyes behind narrow glasses and hair that looked less messy than styled a specific way.

“ Hello,” he greeted Hagumi with a nod of his head. “I don’t think we’ve ever met.”

“ She’s my friend,” Ran said, so blunt that it left Hagumi surprised again. “Is it okay if she stays for a bit? She ran from Shinjuku, and I was gonna get her some water and stuff.”

“ Of course.” Ran left the room to get Hagumi some water, leaving her in the presence of her very calm, very stoic dad. He turned to her and gave her a polite but kind smile. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Ran’s father.”

“ Nice to meet you,” she echoed and bowed. “I’m Hagumi Kitazawa. I live in Shinjuku, but I kind of know Ran-chan because of Afterglow.”

“ Ah, so you do.” His smile widened a tiny bit when she mentioned Ran’s band. “Actually, I think I have seen you before. Your band has performed at some of the same concerts and venues as Afterglow, hasn’t it?”

“ Yes!” Now it was Hagumi’s turn to smile. Pleased, and a little embarrassed to have been recognized, she introduced herself again. “I play the bass with Hello Happy World. It’s a lot of fun, and Afterglow is always amazing to watch from backstage! Even though there are a lot of differences between Afterglow and Hello Happy World, I always feel inspired to do my best when I watch them perform.”

Ran’s dad nodded as she talked. “I feel the same way,” he agreed when she finished. “It’s only during her performances that my daughter really, truly puts herself out there. She’s like a completely different person, though I know all it is, is her spirit coming out in full.”

Shortly after, Ran came back holding a bottle of water, opaque with condensation. As she handed it to Hagumi, she met her dad’s eyes. His smile didn’t falter, and she looked away with tinged cheeks. She must have overheard part of their conversation. Hagumi definitely would have been embarrassed if her own dad had praised her like that in front of someone she knew but not closely.

“ Oh yeah!” Remembering part of the reason Ran had invited her in, Hagumi pressed a fist into her other hand. “Ran-chan showed me your flower arrangement. I wanted to tell you that I think it’s amazing! The way you put your bouquet together is really pretty. I think it’ll be super popular!”

His smile grew again. “Thank you for the kind words. It’s an experiment on my usual work, so I hope it lives up to your assessment of it.”

“ What’s the theme with this one?” Ran asked. Her dad looked to her and smiled, and something came over her. First she looked confused, then her eyes opened wider and she looked as if she regretted ever asking.

“ I specifically chose blue orchids as the main focus of the bouquet,” her dad started to explain more to Hagumi than Ran herself. He placed a lot of emphasis on the name of the blue flowers that made up most of the bouquet. “To create the red flair on the side, I used some poppies. It’s supposed to be reminiscent of my daughter’s hair.”

By now, so much shock and embarrassment had found its way to Ran’s face that Hagumi almost felt bad for just being there. “What do you think, Hagumi-chan?” Ran’s dad asked her, paying no heed to his daughter whose eyes were downcast and hidden behind her bangs.

“ It’s... pretty close,” she had to admit. “Now that you’ve explained it, I can kind of see the resemblance.”

“ Hagumi!” Ran blurted out, then covered her mouth. “L-let’s go to my room, I wanna show you my CDs since you’re here.”

“ Okay!” Waving to Mitake-san, Hagumi let Ran pull her away.

In the back of the house, Ran opened a door into a very cozy-looking bedroom. Despite her house’s more traditional appearance, her room’s features were pretty modern: wooden floor, simple furniture all made of thin, rectangular shapes. She had a sleek computer desk that was the same height as her bed. It fit that her computer chair had no legs.

One thing Hagumi noticed was that Ran’s bed had a severe lack of pillows and stuffed animals, unlike her own. She had to put some of hers on the mantle above her bed or else they would fall off the side of the bed when she rolled over.

“ So... yeah.” Ran nodded as if they had just finished a deep conversation. “This is my room. My CDs are on that shelf. My guitar's here," she said and pointed to her instrument, which Hagumi hadn't noticed when she first looked around.

"Your room is really cool! I like it." Hagumi walked over to Ran's CD shelf. While there were a lot, they were laid out in a neat grid as if on display at a store. "You're so organized, too," she said as she tried to read the titles and the band names. Some of them were written in English that didn't make too much sense to her.

"It's mostly rock," Ran told her as she plopped down in her red computer chair. "I dunno if you're too into it, but those are the bands I like."

"Hey, you even have a Hello Happy CD here!" Hagumi pointed to one of their singles, which was on the far left. It wasn't easily visible if you looked at the shelf from the entrance of the room.

"Oh, that's from Kokoro. She gave one to everyone after the last live show we had together. You remember that, right? You were there."

Hagumi scratched her head. "I remember it... kind of? I might've been in another room at the time."

"Oh. I remember she waited until we were all in the green room, but... yeah. Maybe."

They were both quiet for a little bit.

"I just remembered," Ran said, reaching for something on her desk. "Kasumi said something about wanting to give out CDs to the other bands after Kokoro did that. Tsugu and Tomoe thought it was a good idea too, but we were trying to think of who to give ours to on Hello Happy World."

"Can't you just give it to Kokoron?"

"I mean, I could, but, well..." Ran tried to explain something, gave up, and instead made an equally vague gesture. "Kokoro's just, you know?"

She handed one of Afterglow's CDs to Hagumi. "Anyways. We decided to give it to Okusawa-san, but since you're here you can have it. You can still give it to her if you don't want it. I dunno why we're just giving out one to someone from every band, to be honest. It's not like five people are gonna share a CD. It wasn't my idea."

Hagumi took it. The cover design was similar to the ones on Ran's shelf but in Afterglow's signature colors. It also had English on it, but thankfully she was familiar enough to tell it had Afterglow written on it.

"Wow, it looks so professional! It's even got a cool design on it. Thanks, Ran-chan!" She smiled, and Ran smiled back. "I'll make sure everyone in Hello Happy World gets to listen to it too."

"Anyway, I guess we can just... hang out until you have to go," Ran said with a shrug. "Are you going to run all the way back to your place, too?"

Hagumi shook her head. "I'm going to take the train. I wasn't able to get here without exhausting myself, so if I try to run back then I probably wouldn't make it all the way."

There was another reason, too, that she admitted a few seconds later: "And I, er, don't remember how I got here in the first place, ehehe..."

Hagumi talked with Ran for a while. She found that Ran was a lot easier to talk to than she seemed. Despite having the appearance of someone who would look at you harshly, Ran was a good listener and she always added something on. Hagumi told her how some of Hello Happy World rehearsals went, and then Ran talked about Afterglow for a bit. Their conversation flowed pretty naturally.

They went in such a wide circle that they ended up talking about Ran's dad again. "Your dad is super supportive of you," Hagumi commented. "I kind of wish my dad was like that more, but then again it would be a little embarrassing."

Ran sighed. "At least he can't turn your hair into a croquette or anything weird like my dad just did," she said, which made Hagumi laugh.

"That'd be pretty cool though! I think we could probably sell those." Hagumi leaned back on her hands and looked up at the ceiling. "You're really lucky that your dad is so nice. It's a family business, so he probably expected you to do the same thing as him, but he accepts that you're a part of Afterglow and don't want to give that up."

Ran made an agreeable sound in the back of her throat. "Yeah. It wasn't always like that, but he came around."

"And he does so much for you too. He brought you donuts that one time, right?"

"M-hm. He usually brings us something to eat after we perform, nowadays..." She sighed and shook her head, mumbling something to herself, but it was pretty obvious she was smiling a bit too. "I told him he didn't need to, but he keeps doing it. We're always hungry so I'm definitely thankful, but at this point it's almost a little ridiculous."

"But you love him for all he does for you, right?" Hagumi prodded. And Ran, after a moment, nodded.

"Yeah, I guess so," she mumbled, embarrassed to have to say it outright. That made Hagumi giggle. Ran really had a good relationship with her dad, and she was shy about it. It had been a while since Hagumi last talked to anyone about their family. All of a sudden, she felt closer to Ran, as if they were better friends than they had been thirty minutes ago. Or maybe it was her imagination, and she just wanted to think of them as friends now that they had spent time together once.

Either way, her lips loosened, and she found herself telling Ran about the truth to why she was here and why she had jogged more than seven kilometers through city streets to end up here. She told Ran about how her parents sometimes argued and fought over things, never coming to blows but every now and then saying things that went beyond just simple disagreement. She told her about the broken bathtub, the times she had heard her mom in another room, and how her dad almost always, without fail, left the house in times like these and came back with no mention or explanation of where he had been.

None of these were good things, she knew that much, but it had stopped making her sad at some point. Sometimes it could be scary, but she had gotten over that too.

"It's more that I'm worried about them than anything now," she explained to a very serious-looking Ran, who hadn't said a word since she started talking. "Sometimes, it feels like they don't get along for days, and every now and then I wonder if they're actually happy together. Just when I think I should try to talk to my dad or my mom about it, they seem to be happy again, and everything is okay for a while. I still love them, but sometimes I wonder if they love each other."

Ran was silent for a good while after she finished. She didn't look uncomfortable though, which Hagumi took as a good sign. "Kitazawa-san..."

Hagumi shook her head. "You can call me Hagumi, like you did earlier! Or just Hagu, if you want."

"That was a slip-up," Ran stammered. "Then, Hagumi... Anyways, I don't think you should be too worried."

Ran explained her take on relationships, which was almost funny to listen to because she constantly backtracked and fumbled over her words. "My point is, if they've been together this long and haven't broken up already, then they're obviously still okay with each other. Otherwise it would have been over the second or third time it happened."

Hagumi leaned back and put her head on top of Ran's bed. "I think you're right," she agreed. "And even if they do break up, I don't think that's a super bad thing. You break up with someone because you aren't happy with them, and because you'll be happier afterwards, right?"

"Right."

Hagumi sat up. "When I see you with your dad, I just think, you two seem really close. It's nice that you two get along so well. My relationship with my dad is a lot different from yours. I still think he loves me, but he doesn't dote or try to embarrass me all the time like yours."

"Huh." Hagumi looked at Ran, whose face was so straight it was obvious she was maintaining it with some effort. "Looks like they both have something they could learn from each other."

They shared a laugh. Hagumi exhaled and leaned back once more so she could see the ceiling.

"Alright!" She jumped to her feet, energized. "I'm going to go home now. Thanks for talking with me, Ran-chan! Does your dad have business cards? I was thinking that I would buy some flowers to put in the store, and I want people to know we got them."

"Sure, he'd appreciate the publicity. And thanks for coming. I'll stop by the shop next time I'm in the area, if I'm hungry. I can probably get Himari to come with me too... she's told me how much she likes the stuff she buys there."

"Great! I'll give you one of our special croquettes on the house!"

Ran got up to walk her to the gate. Before Hagumi left, she wanted to say goodbye to Ran's dad, so they walked into the living room.

"Mitake-san! Thanks for—" She stopped after realizing he was in the middle of talking with someone. At the sound of her voice, both he and the other man turned in her direction. "Huh—Dad?"

"Hagu?" Her dad glanced at her, then at Ran's dad who looked equally surprised, then at Ran herself. Ran, for her part, looked the most confused out of all of them.

"What... wait, that's your dad?! Did you tell him we were here?" Hagumi hadn't. "Do they know each other or something?"

"We met just today," Ran's dad told her. "He came in a few minutes ago asking to buy some flowers."

Hagumi's dad rubbed the back of his head. "I figured I would get something for your mom," he said to Hagumi. "I kind of upset her a little bit today, so... I saw the flyer outside and thought flowers would be appropriate. But why are you here, Hagu?"

"I went out for a run, and I ended up visiting Ran-chan." She paused. "Wait, so how did you get here?"

"I was out on a jog, and... well, you know." She knew. They stared at each other for a long moment.

All of a sudden, Ran snickered and covered her mouth, but it was too late to hold it in. She doubled over, laughing, and soon enough her dad had a grin on his face too. Eventually they were all laughing, because sometimes things happened and it was the only thing you could do. Hagumi and her dad ended up sticking around for a little while longer.

When they left it wasn't without a promise to visit again and a bouquet of flowers in hand, along with a business card Hagumi intended to use soon.


End file.
